Hey, you filthy fuckaducks, over in the piece on Rebublicans' proposed enshittification of VA healthcare, I just deleted an entire subthread in which two readers started calling each other enemies of all things good and decent, and even though both participants in the shitshow tried to include something like logic and evidence, they were in that Internet argument mode where I wouldn't want either of them to be in the same room holding broken beer bottles by the neck.
I also had to point out to a completely different person the illogic of their call for all veterans to be "fucked good and hard," every last one of them, because military vets voted nearly 2 to 1 for Trump.
It's an accurate statistic, but I think maybe that's a poor solution, since it amounts to calling for the 34% of veterans who voted for Harris to be fucked good and hard too. That's a population that includes Tim Walz, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, and a hell of a lot of Wonkette readers who I can name, and so can you.
So no, let's not be calling for collective punishment of sinful groups. And yes, we still prohibit calls for violence in general. This is not because some people aren't assholes who make America objectively worse, but because this is a fucking civilized place, fuckers. It's a blog, and venting your violent fantasies really will not do anything to bring the change we need.
I know that a lot of us are pissed off about the election, and on top of that a lot of us are further having very legitimate emotions related to the murder of that insurance CEO, either seeing it as a proxy for rage at how fucked this nation's health "system" is, or being horrified that people are talking about shooting a lot more CEOs who all have it coming.
Just a reminder that the GODDAMNNED COMMENTING RULES REMAIN IN EFFECT, PLEASE AND THANK YOU AND HAVE A STRESS FREE GODDAMNED WEEKEND.
Labeling any large group and assuming they all have the same negative characteristics is a vile thing to do. It is at the base of racism, sexism, and many other isms. The exception, sort of, is when adult people choose to be part of a vile group.
I have three siblings. My oldest brother and I were somewhat alike. My youngest brother and sister are borderline sociopaths--not sure which side of the border. This is clearly shown by behavior. Responsibility versus entitlement aren't not shared even by siblings, let alone groups of millions of people who are in a loose group.
I still find it horrifying that that many people who have served in the military would still vote for Trump after all he has said and done. I can understand normal people being livid about that. But the solution would've been as simple as merely stating that around 66% of veterans deserve to be fucked and fucked hard. Those qualifiers are important in times like this but I also think that most people understand that they don't mean 'everyone' when they make broad statements like that. People have often trashed my state Virginia for voting for Glenn Youngkin. I understand that they don't mean to implicate the people who didn't vote for him. It's just kind of a short hand to assume that people know that you don't mean "everyone ". When I say America deserves what it is going to get, obviously I don't mean the people who stood against it. I just assumed that was understood
People trash my home state of Florida as well, where that vindictive little psychopath Ron De Satan hath wrought so much anguish and destruction, is now using his position to inflict himself on the country at large in 2028, and has for all practical purposes, become the Face of Florida. I too understand that people who bash Florida know that ALL Floridians did not vote for Trump and all the other Florida MAGA shits who have turned Florida into a hellhole for the poor and the sick and the elderly (and god help you if you're all three -- you might as well cash it in), as well as the ordinary decent folks who voted Democrat. They were vastly outnumbered by the MAGAts who want to use the political system to stick it to groups of people they hate with a blind, stupid, unreasoning, laser-focused intensity.
On the flip side, a lot of radical righters trash California.
The darkly silver lining is that a lot of people who voted for trumpy knew and liked that he intended to hurt people. They just figured they personally wouldn't be hurt. Dream on, SIMs.
THIS at a time when we need all the support we can get from every single Democrat everywhere? This is not the time to "reach across the aisle" because you'll just draw back a bleeding stump (metaphorically speaking). You cannot accomplish anything by cooperating with sociopaths hell-bent on destroying the country for their own gain. "Working with" or trying to make deals with the devil will only further their efforts to cut the U.S. off at the knees.
Please give up the pipe dream of "working with" unreasonable cultists who hate you and everything you stand for, and will not hesitate to stab you in the back and use your naive good intentions to cause further harm. They are not interested in your cooperation. They don't need it - the numbers are on their side. They have no moral compass and no conscience; they answer only to their orange Lord and Savior Jesus Trump, and no one else, not even the minions who voted for them.
All you can do is work like hell to minimize the damage wherever and whenever possible, and that means sticking together like glue with your fellow progressive office holders.
The GOP is sticking together like a solid wall. It would behoove you to do the same. I believe that's the only way we'll get through the next four years.
I have been guilty as well. We all feel the devastation and the rage at the election results, and the horror at the mounting freakshow coming together to land on us like Planet Nibiru. I've vented plenty of spleen but I agree, I needed this reminder as well.
Time to start figuring out what I CAN do to protect myself and those around me.
"...either seeing it as a proxy for rage at how fucked this nation's health "system" is, or being horrified that people are talking about shooting a lot more CEOs who all have it coming."
Same - I do NOT want us to re-do The Terror, but I also understand how someone could be pushed that far. Health care in this country is rapidly becoming an ongoing crime against humanity.
"Thompson made his millions and made his company his[sic] billions by running a very profitable machine that creates human suffering called a health insurance company. This sort of human-suffering machine creates wealth by putting itself between health care and patients, and then by denying that health care, or at least denying to pay for most of it."
Whether people condone or approve of a murder like this is beside the point. It is merely what happens when all other forms of redress have been exhausted. We tried voting, we tried pleading, we tried to jumpstart our legislatures to counter the insane costs of healthcare, we depended on our judicial system to put people like this motherfucker in jail. All of it for nothing. And now one murder later, a murder that has shockingly done more to put a spotlight on the atrocities of our healthcare system than anything else has very disturbingly proven to be quite effective. That tactic apparently actually works. And now that that information is out there, it's likely we will see more of it. I will stop there because I don't want to break any commenting guidelines.
But shorter. It is what it is and we are where we are because of decades of neglect, abuse, and often torture from the vultures of capitalism. And the people charged with protecting us from these abuses has at best turned to blind eye, and very often been complicit and co-conspirators with the abusers ....This is simply what happens when you keep throwing rocks at the hornets nest. You're going to get stung
I have a hayfork, which could be termed a pitchfork. I'm not seeing much discussion of gun control in the wake of this murder. When enough angry desperate people start resorting to these acts we might see a variety of methods on display.
When garden tools are outlawed, only outlaws will have garden tools.
Nobody needs to be fucked hard and good in America. Republicans are idiots, this we all know... but if they get fucked, we all get fucked... and I ain't up for a fuckin just so I can be right about their stupid fucking asses.
Unfortunately, our politics, healthcare system, tax system, are not going to get UNfucked, until the dolts who vote for Dump DO get fucked hard and good. What makes me think this? EXPERIENCE!
Why did Clinton get elected? Because Reagan/GHWBush had a stock market crash, and a S&L collapse, and people were mad that they couldn't get jobs. Why did Obama get elected? Because GWB wiped out $14 trillion worth of wealth. Why did Biden get elected? Because Dump bungled a pandemic.
UNTIL MAGAts get fucked good, and yes, we will ALL get fucked in the process, this country isn't going to change. I think Dump is going to fuck the economy so badly, it will be decades before a Republican gets elected again.
Full disclosure, I thought that would happen after GWB crashed the economy, and in 8 years people COMPLETELY forgot who had crashed the economy and blamed Obama. It only took people four years to forget how bad Dump was.
I have an idea that whatever complex of factors is part of the concerning rise in cancer diagnoses in the under 50 age group is also affecting attention span and cognition.
Knowing it and rooting for it are different. Look, I'm as guilty as everyone else who has said exactly the same thing about all different types of people who allow the leopards to eat their faces... and I don't ever remember actually wanting any of these people to individually suffer, so I think Dok overreacted and he was exactly right to do so... and he feels the same way or he wouldn't have posted his mea culpa. We are in strange times and tricky water right now and feelings are raw EVERYWHERE! A street murderer is a cult hero right now for gunning down a CEO and I don't know how I feel about that...
Poor Texas couldn't get rid of that smirking evil self-absorbed self-righteous cretin. I have a couple of friends in Texas that I am very worried about.
I would like for TX to secede, but I always include that I want to grant amnesty, and relocation costs, to the minority of Texans who are NOT idiots. My own state is also an idiot red state, but getting rid of my state wouldn't change the makeup of the House of Representatives the way getting rid of TX would.
My real fantasy is to get TX, LA, FL, and Alabama to form their own nation (Dumbfuckistan), so that they would attract all the MAGAMORONS from the other 46 states, and they could all be armed to the teeth, and have no regulations on anything, and let their kids be raised in Bible schools. The rest of America would flourish with 8 fewer Republican senators, and a lot fewer House assholes.
Florida and Texas are going to drag the rest of America down into the muck with them anyway, so why not just let the rest of the America get back to being a sane nation? If you have a better solution, I'm open to hearing it.
Florida is my home state, and even though I live in Minnesota now, I still feel devastated for what has happened to the place where I was born and raised.
Unworkable. What was true at the start of the 19th Century is still true today, even with all the modern evolutions in cargo transport...whoever owns the vast area from the Appalachians to the Rockies, in particular the Midwest and Upper Plains, also HAS to own the port nearest the mouth of the Mississippi. Thomas Jefferson, for all his glaring faults, knew this then and doubled the size of the existing country (perhaps without the Constitutional authority to actually do so) in pursuit of that goal.
Of course, I may have a somewhat biased viewpoint as a lifelong New Orleanian.
System thinking needs to be employed, rather than ideological restructuring (or cost cutting). That's a tall order for a president elect who doesn't seem to understand how things actually work. For instance, you'd think he'd know more about selecting a competent lawyer.
Millions of people are going to suffer because of Trump. It was obvious to anyone paying attention for the past 8 years. But a third of them are not responsible. It's the one third voting for Trump and another one third that didn't think it was important enough to get off their ass and vote that are responsible. That is the two thirds I have no sympathy for and hope they suffer because of the harm they caused to the one third not responsible for installing a clearly dangerous felon as president.
Some won't just suffer, they could even die from being cut off from health care or being murdered because they're somehow different from the "approved norm" endorsed by the MAGA hordes.
Noted and thanks. I called the healthcare guy who got murdered an asshole generically. He may well be, but I live in a glass house and hope for more tolerance.
I had to work yesterday, and when I got home I went media free, highball in hand to go outside for sunset. The big cup. Needless to say, the lamp was lit.
" ... tried to include something like logic and evidence ..."
That practice usually only gets you blocked, if you're doing it right.
Example, me: "I invoke Sir Issac Newton's 3rd Law of Motion!"
Respondent: "F-U. Am blocking."
Though also works with invoking logical fallacies, in the original Latin.
Me: "I'm calling post hoc, ergo propter hoc." You can imagine that if you wave Latin around, the response will be not positive. Anyway, glad I have no idea what went down. (I would have used Latin.) Retort: "Oh yeah? Ad Antiquitatem." Me: "Ad Ignorantium." Retort: "Ignoratio Elenchi." Me: "Secundum quid et simpliciter."
Have some Tombstone, where Johnny Ringo and Doc Holiday get in a Latin-off:
I'm not a billionaire, so I'm not qualified to figure out cuts to the budget, but it seems to me that you could save even more by getting rid of the underutilized space completely instead of forcing workers to occupy it.
You can add Moskowitz to the DOGE crowd. He's joining the DOGE Congressional Caucus. Both have 1 thing, at least, in common: they are both grandstanding self aggrandizing jackasses. They must think this will get them lots of social media attention and I suppose it probably will for whatever that is worth.
Ro is, and always has been, all about the Ro. He took out Mike Honda, a fine congressman, by buddying up with the VC money boys and arguing (falsely) that Honda was not physically up to the job. He has the deep political convictions of a weathervane.
We actually have single-payer financing of healthcare in this country (traditional Medicare, ie, not Medicare Advantage, and the VA). Unfortunately, those don't cover everyone.
Also too, saying that WFH should end because companies have excess office space is incredibly stupid. Just rent less space! It's not employees' fault you signed long term leases, or built huge office buildings to puff up your egos. Making people come to the offices REDUCES productivity you ridiculous corporate twits!
My only guess is that there is a very very tiny subset of progressives who are progressive because progressivism is seen as being outside the system. Sticking it to the man, but sticking it to the man merely for the sake of sticking it to the man. Like there is a Venn diagram with some overlap between progressive and nihilists. I'm pretty much as far left as you can get without being a straight up communist. And I can guarantee you these kinds of musk loving "progressives" are as far away from my ideology as the right wing fascists are.
They're not changing. They run as dems in bluer areas, spouting the kind of stuff you'd expect, then take off the mask after they get in. Was a lady in NC for example, and Tulsi of course, and this one.
Point: We should be leery of any "Democrat" running who spends all his or her time trashing other Dems /and not the actual fucking fascists. Just a thought.
Why does Ro Khanna think to two lying sleaze balls, in Musk & Ramaswamy, won’t try to fuck him over his support for DOGE? Ro gets holding the bag of flaming shit, at the end, because he’s actually in government.
These are not people who operate in good faith.
Also, given all the jobs the U.S. military has been tasked to do over the last 25 years, some parts of it have suffered from underfunding. Fighting two wars, plus providing training, assistance, etc. to the Kurds in Syria, to countries in Africa, etc. costs money.
A big expensive number should be compared to what is being purchased or for the scope of services requested, before deciding if it’s too much.
The question really is how active should the U.S. military be on the world stage. Pulling back enables a legitimate reason to cut spending. Otherwise you are trying to squeeze an organization to do more with less.
I want to add, most people do not do irreplaceable critical jobs that an organization cannot hope to find other qualified employees for these people. Most people working in an organization can be someone else’s idea of waste, fraud, and abuse.
“Yes, administrative costs in our healthcare system are too high because of insurance companies.”
Providers play a huge part in this as well. Since some people like their doctors and are grateful for necessary procedures and surgeries to make them all better, we act like providers are blameless.
Providers set the price of what healthcare costs. Insurers was what bargaining power to lower payouts to providers.
For example: Hospital A wants to bill $1500 for an X-Ray. Insurer #1 says that’s fucking nuts, so we’ll pay $150 or send out patients to Hospital B. After some negotiation, Hospital A agrees to accept $200 as reimbursement from the insurer.
Fast forward a few years and Hospitals A & B merge, so insurers #1 to #20 have lost a fuck ton of negotiating leverage because there’s only one hospital in the area.
Now the major healthcare provider for the area can more easily dictate higher prices.
There are no innocent parties involved in the U.S. healthcare system. Everyone plays a part to make it suck.
In my own state there are HUGE health care facilities that span several counties. All owned by the same entity. An ordinary doctor visit is close to $700. And that's just for the appointment to walk into their office.
Even our county health clinic charges similar outrageous prices, of which my insurance will cover only a small portion.
Most of the time, I resort to OTC remedies and tough it out at home. I can't even afford regular wellness visits to make sure nothing is wrong.
None of these world class businessmen have any business getting near the Federal Budget. Running a government is the antithesis of running a business. A government is not supposed to turn a profit. The Federal government is the country's single largest employer, and the single largest consumer of EVERYTHING! Any quick drastic changes will wreck the economy!
A wrecked economy means a lot of valuable stuff can be picked up cheap. Farmland one time, tech IP another. Plus, the nasty nouveau riche tend to go away.
Busy day. Traditional pagan symbol of midwinter has been acquired. Devine singing by a friend in a chorus. Drinks at the local bar and even time to pet the dog.
And now it's watching the only movie where Jack Black isn't a weirdo.
MODERATOR NOTE:
Hey, you filthy fuckaducks, over in the piece on Rebublicans' proposed enshittification of VA healthcare, I just deleted an entire subthread in which two readers started calling each other enemies of all things good and decent, and even though both participants in the shitshow tried to include something like logic and evidence, they were in that Internet argument mode where I wouldn't want either of them to be in the same room holding broken beer bottles by the neck.
I also had to point out to a completely different person the illogic of their call for all veterans to be "fucked good and hard," every last one of them, because military vets voted nearly 2 to 1 for Trump.
It's an accurate statistic, but I think maybe that's a poor solution, since it amounts to calling for the 34% of veterans who voted for Harris to be fucked good and hard too. That's a population that includes Tim Walz, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, and a hell of a lot of Wonkette readers who I can name, and so can you.
So no, let's not be calling for collective punishment of sinful groups. And yes, we still prohibit calls for violence in general. This is not because some people aren't assholes who make America objectively worse, but because this is a fucking civilized place, fuckers. It's a blog, and venting your violent fantasies really will not do anything to bring the change we need.
I know that a lot of us are pissed off about the election, and on top of that a lot of us are further having very legitimate emotions related to the murder of that insurance CEO, either seeing it as a proxy for rage at how fucked this nation's health "system" is, or being horrified that people are talking about shooting a lot more CEOs who all have it coming.
Just a reminder that the GODDAMNNED COMMENTING RULES REMAIN IN EFFECT, PLEASE AND THANK YOU AND HAVE A STRESS FREE GODDAMNED WEEKEND.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/rules-for-commenting-radicals
Labeling any large group and assuming they all have the same negative characteristics is a vile thing to do. It is at the base of racism, sexism, and many other isms. The exception, sort of, is when adult people choose to be part of a vile group.
I have three siblings. My oldest brother and I were somewhat alike. My youngest brother and sister are borderline sociopaths--not sure which side of the border. This is clearly shown by behavior. Responsibility versus entitlement aren't not shared even by siblings, let alone groups of millions of people who are in a loose group.
Upfist for "this is a fucking civilized place"
I still find it horrifying that that many people who have served in the military would still vote for Trump after all he has said and done. I can understand normal people being livid about that. But the solution would've been as simple as merely stating that around 66% of veterans deserve to be fucked and fucked hard. Those qualifiers are important in times like this but I also think that most people understand that they don't mean 'everyone' when they make broad statements like that. People have often trashed my state Virginia for voting for Glenn Youngkin. I understand that they don't mean to implicate the people who didn't vote for him. It's just kind of a short hand to assume that people know that you don't mean "everyone ". When I say America deserves what it is going to get, obviously I don't mean the people who stood against it. I just assumed that was understood
I think that people who voted for trumpy are SIMS: stupid, ignorant, and misinformed. It takes all three things to be a true trumpster.
People trash my home state of Florida as well, where that vindictive little psychopath Ron De Satan hath wrought so much anguish and destruction, is now using his position to inflict himself on the country at large in 2028, and has for all practical purposes, become the Face of Florida. I too understand that people who bash Florida know that ALL Floridians did not vote for Trump and all the other Florida MAGA shits who have turned Florida into a hellhole for the poor and the sick and the elderly (and god help you if you're all three -- you might as well cash it in), as well as the ordinary decent folks who voted Democrat. They were vastly outnumbered by the MAGAts who want to use the political system to stick it to groups of people they hate with a blind, stupid, unreasoning, laser-focused intensity.
On the flip side, a lot of radical righters trash California.
The darkly silver lining is that a lot of people who voted for trumpy knew and liked that he intended to hurt people. They just figured they personally wouldn't be hurt. Dream on, SIMs.
Rhonda Satan?
Yep. AKA Rhonda Sandtits
I musta missed that one LOL!
It's a feature not a bug of authoritarianism that their opposition becomes both extremist and splintered.
I'm not sure how this fake progressive qualifies as opposition. Sounds more like a lapdog to me
Ro Khanna, listen up:
THIS at a time when we need all the support we can get from every single Democrat everywhere? This is not the time to "reach across the aisle" because you'll just draw back a bleeding stump (metaphorically speaking). You cannot accomplish anything by cooperating with sociopaths hell-bent on destroying the country for their own gain. "Working with" or trying to make deals with the devil will only further their efforts to cut the U.S. off at the knees.
Please give up the pipe dream of "working with" unreasonable cultists who hate you and everything you stand for, and will not hesitate to stab you in the back and use your naive good intentions to cause further harm. They are not interested in your cooperation. They don't need it - the numbers are on their side. They have no moral compass and no conscience; they answer only to their orange Lord and Savior Jesus Trump, and no one else, not even the minions who voted for them.
All you can do is work like hell to minimize the damage wherever and whenever possible, and that means sticking together like glue with your fellow progressive office holders.
The GOP is sticking together like a solid wall. It would behoove you to do the same. I believe that's the only way we'll get through the next four years.
Shameless self promotion.
Sorry, Dok, I am guilty of contributing to this too. My bad. We all need these reminders.
I have been guilty as well. We all feel the devastation and the rage at the election results, and the horror at the mounting freakshow coming together to land on us like Planet Nibiru. I've vented plenty of spleen but I agree, I needed this reminder as well.
Time to start figuring out what I CAN do to protect myself and those around me.
Well said, every bit.
"...either seeing it as a proxy for rage at how fucked this nation's health "system" is, or being horrified that people are talking about shooting a lot more CEOs who all have it coming."
For me, both.
Same - I do NOT want us to re-do The Terror, but I also understand how someone could be pushed that far. Health care in this country is rapidly becoming an ongoing crime against humanity.
I liked the way A. R. Moxon put it this week:
"Thompson made his millions and made his company his[sic] billions by running a very profitable machine that creates human suffering called a health insurance company. This sort of human-suffering machine creates wealth by putting itself between health care and patients, and then by denying that health care, or at least denying to pay for most of it."
https://www.the-reframe.com/peaceful-solutions/
"Health care in this country is rapidly becoming an ongoing crime against humanity."
Yes indeed. A very lucrative "crime against humanity." The most apt and concise description I've heard so far.
Whether people condone or approve of a murder like this is beside the point. It is merely what happens when all other forms of redress have been exhausted. We tried voting, we tried pleading, we tried to jumpstart our legislatures to counter the insane costs of healthcare, we depended on our judicial system to put people like this motherfucker in jail. All of it for nothing. And now one murder later, a murder that has shockingly done more to put a spotlight on the atrocities of our healthcare system than anything else has very disturbingly proven to be quite effective. That tactic apparently actually works. And now that that information is out there, it's likely we will see more of it. I will stop there because I don't want to break any commenting guidelines.
But shorter. It is what it is and we are where we are because of decades of neglect, abuse, and often torture from the vultures of capitalism. And the people charged with protecting us from these abuses has at best turned to blind eye, and very often been complicit and co-conspirators with the abusers ....This is simply what happens when you keep throwing rocks at the hornets nest. You're going to get stung
I have a hayfork, which could be termed a pitchfork. I'm not seeing much discussion of gun control in the wake of this murder. When enough angry desperate people start resorting to these acts we might see a variety of methods on display.
When garden tools are outlawed, only outlaws will have garden tools.
"I'm not seeing much discussion of gun control in the wake of this murder"
you caught that too..
See Nazi Germany ca 1940
Nobody needs to be fucked hard and good in America. Republicans are idiots, this we all know... but if they get fucked, we all get fucked... and I ain't up for a fuckin just so I can be right about their stupid fucking asses.
My stupid fucking son included.
Unfortunately, our politics, healthcare system, tax system, are not going to get UNfucked, until the dolts who vote for Dump DO get fucked hard and good. What makes me think this? EXPERIENCE!
Why did Clinton get elected? Because Reagan/GHWBush had a stock market crash, and a S&L collapse, and people were mad that they couldn't get jobs. Why did Obama get elected? Because GWB wiped out $14 trillion worth of wealth. Why did Biden get elected? Because Dump bungled a pandemic.
UNTIL MAGAts get fucked good, and yes, we will ALL get fucked in the process, this country isn't going to change. I think Dump is going to fuck the economy so badly, it will be decades before a Republican gets elected again.
Full disclosure, I thought that would happen after GWB crashed the economy, and in 8 years people COMPLETELY forgot who had crashed the economy and blamed Obama. It only took people four years to forget how bad Dump was.
I have an idea that whatever complex of factors is part of the concerning rise in cancer diagnoses in the under 50 age group is also affecting attention span and cognition.
Brawndo all around!
Knowing it and rooting for it are different. Look, I'm as guilty as everyone else who has said exactly the same thing about all different types of people who allow the leopards to eat their faces... and I don't ever remember actually wanting any of these people to individually suffer, so I think Dok overreacted and he was exactly right to do so... and he feels the same way or he wouldn't have posted his mea culpa. We are in strange times and tricky water right now and feelings are raw EVERYWHERE! A street murderer is a cult hero right now for gunning down a CEO and I don't know how I feel about that...
Alex Jones can get fucked tho
And Ted FUCKING CRUZ!
Poor Texas couldn't get rid of that smirking evil self-absorbed self-righteous cretin. I have a couple of friends in Texas that I am very worried about.
Now see, this is what I want to say every time someone says FUCK TEXAS (or any red state). There’s a lot of decent folk stuck in erry red state.
I would like for TX to secede, but I always include that I want to grant amnesty, and relocation costs, to the minority of Texans who are NOT idiots. My own state is also an idiot red state, but getting rid of my state wouldn't change the makeup of the House of Representatives the way getting rid of TX would.
My real fantasy is to get TX, LA, FL, and Alabama to form their own nation (Dumbfuckistan), so that they would attract all the MAGAMORONS from the other 46 states, and they could all be armed to the teeth, and have no regulations on anything, and let their kids be raised in Bible schools. The rest of America would flourish with 8 fewer Republican senators, and a lot fewer House assholes.
Florida and Texas are going to drag the rest of America down into the muck with them anyway, so why not just let the rest of the America get back to being a sane nation? If you have a better solution, I'm open to hearing it.
Florida is my home state, and even though I live in Minnesota now, I still feel devastated for what has happened to the place where I was born and raised.
But I can't argue with a single thing you said.
Unworkable. What was true at the start of the 19th Century is still true today, even with all the modern evolutions in cargo transport...whoever owns the vast area from the Appalachians to the Rockies, in particular the Midwest and Upper Plains, also HAS to own the port nearest the mouth of the Mississippi. Thomas Jefferson, for all his glaring faults, knew this then and doubled the size of the existing country (perhaps without the Constitutional authority to actually do so) in pursuit of that goal.
Of course, I may have a somewhat biased viewpoint as a lifelong New Orleanian.
System thinking needs to be employed, rather than ideological restructuring (or cost cutting). That's a tall order for a president elect who doesn't seem to understand how things actually work. For instance, you'd think he'd know more about selecting a competent lawyer.
I'm here. My mission is to MESS WITH TEXAS Ha ha
"Let's Mess With Texas".
How?
I defer to The Blessed Reverend.
I grew up in Lubbock, in many ways the flattest place in the universe!
https://youtu.be/-kosvsEfM-g?si=Phg3IQsgHFpO1sUr
James McMurtry
“Aunt Tootie lived close to Lubbock-but not TOO close to Lubbock. No one wants to be TOO close to Lubbock.”
-Nancy Griffith.
I'm OK with you saying Fuck Texas... as long as you lead off with
FUCK TED FUCKING CRUZ!!
Us sane people know this. And have been saying this for years.
Millions of people are going to suffer because of Trump. It was obvious to anyone paying attention for the past 8 years. But a third of them are not responsible. It's the one third voting for Trump and another one third that didn't think it was important enough to get off their ass and vote that are responsible. That is the two thirds I have no sympathy for and hope they suffer because of the harm they caused to the one third not responsible for installing a clearly dangerous felon as president.
Some won't just suffer, they could even die from being cut off from health care or being murdered because they're somehow different from the "approved norm" endorsed by the MAGA hordes.
Apparently suffering is the only way that they are capable of learning. Quite literally.
Sort of like praying for the asteroid to hit, and forgetting that it'll take out all of us.
Okay, so what’s the downside?
My question too.
Noted and thanks. I called the healthcare guy who got murdered an asshole generically. He may well be, but I live in a glass house and hope for more tolerance.
"This is not because some people aren't assholes who make America objectively worse, but because this is a fucking civilized place, fuckers."
Thank you Dok.
I read most of Dok's noncomment, but I am soooooo high right now, I just can't finish. Be nice to each other. We're all we've got.
I had to work yesterday, and when I got home I went media free, highball in hand to go outside for sunset. The big cup. Needless to say, the lamp was lit.
LOL, you goofball.
That's me!
Are you sure he wasn't talking to your substance?
And just like that, it's the bebop era again, and all of us are hepped up on goofballs.
"I don't get much of a rise out of 'T' anymore."
https://creepycomics.wordpress.com/2015/09/05/shock-suspenstories-12-the-monkey/
I WISH!
" ... tried to include something like logic and evidence ..."
That practice usually only gets you blocked, if you're doing it right.
Example, me: "I invoke Sir Issac Newton's 3rd Law of Motion!"
Respondent: "F-U. Am blocking."
Though also works with invoking logical fallacies, in the original Latin.
Me: "I'm calling post hoc, ergo propter hoc." You can imagine that if you wave Latin around, the response will be not positive. Anyway, glad I have no idea what went down. (I would have used Latin.) Retort: "Oh yeah? Ad Antiquitatem." Me: "Ad Ignorantium." Retort: "Ignoratio Elenchi." Me: "Secundum quid et simpliciter."
Have some Tombstone, where Johnny Ringo and Doc Holiday get in a Latin-off:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gSj1G4Vf0w
Pie Iesu domine, dona eis requiem (bonk!).
Oblig:
https://substack.com/profile/99570815-cripesamighty/note/c-80582297?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=1na5bz
You aren't going to be able to pull that Latin shit on our resident Doktor of Philosophy, Rhetoric Style.
It may not cow Dok, but I gotta admit it's getting me a little het up.
Gosh, what'd I miss? Kids being naughty or sumpin, damn I hate missing the good stuff...
// underutilized government office space //
I'm not a billionaire, so I'm not qualified to figure out cuts to the budget, but it seems to me that you could save even more by getting rid of the underutilized space completely instead of forcing workers to occupy it.
You can add Moskowitz to the DOGE crowd. He's joining the DOGE Congressional Caucus. Both have 1 thing, at least, in common: they are both grandstanding self aggrandizing jackasses. They must think this will get them lots of social media attention and I suppose it probably will for whatever that is worth.
Ro is, and always has been, all about the Ro. He took out Mike Honda, a fine congressman, by buddying up with the VC money boys and arguing (falsely) that Honda was not physically up to the job. He has the deep political convictions of a weathervane.
We actually have single-payer financing of healthcare in this country (traditional Medicare, ie, not Medicare Advantage, and the VA). Unfortunately, those don't cover everyone.
Ro Khanna's behavior reminds me of this classic poem. Just substitute "panders" for "boozes."
A Man Who Boozes
An Irish Poem of Unknown Origin
It was a year ago, September
a day I well remember
I was walking up and down
in drunken pride
when my knees began to flutter
and I fell down in the gutter
and a pig came by and lay down by my side
As I lay there in the gutter
thinking thoughts I could not utter
I thought I heard a passing lady say,
"You can tell a man who boozes
by the company he chooses..."
And with that, the pig got up and walked away
Also too, saying that WFH should end because companies have excess office space is incredibly stupid. Just rent less space! It's not employees' fault you signed long term leases, or built huge office buildings to puff up your egos. Making people come to the offices REDUCES productivity you ridiculous corporate twits!
We are pronouncing it "Dougie." Pass it on.
There's always someone who will "play nice" with fascists in hopes of not being a victim of them. Do you know what those are called?
Victims of Nazis.
My only guess is that there is a very very tiny subset of progressives who are progressive because progressivism is seen as being outside the system. Sticking it to the man, but sticking it to the man merely for the sake of sticking it to the man. Like there is a Venn diagram with some overlap between progressive and nihilists. I'm pretty much as far left as you can get without being a straight up communist. And I can guarantee you these kinds of musk loving "progressives" are as far away from my ideology as the right wing fascists are.
They're not changing. They run as dems in bluer areas, spouting the kind of stuff you'd expect, then take off the mask after they get in. Was a lady in NC for example, and Tulsi of course, and this one.
Point: We should be leery of any "Democrat" running who spends all his or her time trashing other Dems /and not the actual fucking fascists. Just a thought.
Why does Ro Khanna think to two lying sleaze balls, in Musk & Ramaswamy, won’t try to fuck him over his support for DOGE? Ro gets holding the bag of flaming shit, at the end, because he’s actually in government.
These are not people who operate in good faith.
Also, given all the jobs the U.S. military has been tasked to do over the last 25 years, some parts of it have suffered from underfunding. Fighting two wars, plus providing training, assistance, etc. to the Kurds in Syria, to countries in Africa, etc. costs money.
A big expensive number should be compared to what is being purchased or for the scope of services requested, before deciding if it’s too much.
The question really is how active should the U.S. military be on the world stage. Pulling back enables a legitimate reason to cut spending. Otherwise you are trying to squeeze an organization to do more with less.
I want to add, most people do not do irreplaceable critical jobs that an organization cannot hope to find other qualified employees for these people. Most people working in an organization can be someone else’s idea of waste, fraud, and abuse.
“Yes, administrative costs in our healthcare system are too high because of insurance companies.”
Providers play a huge part in this as well. Since some people like their doctors and are grateful for necessary procedures and surgeries to make them all better, we act like providers are blameless.
Providers set the price of what healthcare costs. Insurers was what bargaining power to lower payouts to providers.
For example: Hospital A wants to bill $1500 for an X-Ray. Insurer #1 says that’s fucking nuts, so we’ll pay $150 or send out patients to Hospital B. After some negotiation, Hospital A agrees to accept $200 as reimbursement from the insurer.
Fast forward a few years and Hospitals A & B merge, so insurers #1 to #20 have lost a fuck ton of negotiating leverage because there’s only one hospital in the area.
Now the major healthcare provider for the area can more easily dictate higher prices.
There are no innocent parties involved in the U.S. healthcare system. Everyone plays a part to make it suck.
In my own state there are HUGE health care facilities that span several counties. All owned by the same entity. An ordinary doctor visit is close to $700. And that's just for the appointment to walk into their office.
Even our county health clinic charges similar outrageous prices, of which my insurance will cover only a small portion.
Most of the time, I resort to OTC remedies and tough it out at home. I can't even afford regular wellness visits to make sure nothing is wrong.
Cut Federal spending by $2 trillion and see what happens. Sounds like a plan!!
None of these world class businessmen have any business getting near the Federal Budget. Running a government is the antithesis of running a business. A government is not supposed to turn a profit. The Federal government is the country's single largest employer, and the single largest consumer of EVERYTHING! Any quick drastic changes will wreck the economy!
A wrecked economy means a lot of valuable stuff can be picked up cheap. Farmland one time, tech IP another. Plus, the nasty nouveau riche tend to go away.
Precisely!! Seems that only a handful of us are aware of that
Which would hurt everyone except for rich people. Nothing ever hurts rich people... Rich people do the hurting, they don't feel the pain.
Recent CEO murder excluded... I'm talking macro, not micro.
Busy day. Traditional pagan symbol of midwinter has been acquired. Devine singing by a friend in a chorus. Drinks at the local bar and even time to pet the dog.
And now it's watching the only movie where Jack Black isn't a weirdo.
What movie could that possibly be?
The Holiday.
It's aged better than Love Actually.
"accidental boob graze"